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HOW TO CONTRUCT A SQUARE OF NINE
ROADMAP CHART IN EXCEL

This tutorial will show you how to construct a Square of Nine Roadmap Chart from a regular price chart created in Excel  You could also use a chart printed out from Yahoo or Big Charts or any other online service or charting program. This example uses Hourly Data (65 minutes actually) of the S&P 500. Hourly charts are good to practice with because conditions change quickly and you get many opportunities to experiment. We will assume that you already know how to create a stock chart in Excel. This is what the plain-jane stock chart looks like. We used high-low-close bars but if the chart doesn't get too crowded candles also work nicely.

When you scroll around on your Excel chart while working in the program itself, the value of the data point under the mouse cursor will appear in a little window. In this case we want to start the Roadmap from the low at 1166.31, which occurred on January 28, 2005 at the 11:40 bar.

From the Square Root Theory you learned that we can move 360 degrees around the Square of Nine by adding 2 to the square root of a number and squaring the resulting sum. In the example on the Roadmap Theory page we moved from 15 to 34, which is directly above 15 on the Square of Nine, by taking the square root of 15 (3.87), adding 2 (5.87) and squaring that sum (34.49). A paper version of the Square of Nine uses rounded numbers and 34.49 was rounded down to 34.  Just so we have some common language to work with we call the "2" we added to the square root of 15 a Factor of 2. We understand that Factor is a mathematical term of art, and in that sense it's being misused, but most people reading this are not mathematicians and will not be greatly  offended.

If a Factor of 2 represents 360 degrees or a full circle move, then 45 degrees or 1/8 circle will be represented by a Factor of .25 (360/8 = 45) and (2/8 = .25). Many, if not most, major stock market moves end on a multiple of 90 degrees. We're working with Hourly data and because 90 degrees may be too granular we use 45 degrees which is an exact division of 90 degrees for our Hourly Roadmap Charts. If you want to work with Daily or Weekly data then we suggest using 90 or 180 degree Factors, which are .5 and 1 respectively, (360/4 = 90 and 2/4 = .5) and (360/2 = 180 and 2/2 = 1). In practice, you can use any Factor you want and odds are that at least one will fit your trending data points exactly, even though it would have allowed you to draw the Roadmap Chart before the fact. Gann said that 90 degrees is very important for the stock market, and our own experience with the major stock market indexes confirms that, but there very well could be other very important factors for different stock market indexes, currencies, commodities or individual stocks. There is probably much more that remains unknown and undiscovered about the application of the Square of Nine than we can imagine, so experimentation is encouraged for those willing to do the work.

Now that we've decided to use a Factor of .250 (representing 45 degrees) we can begin to actually construct the chart. We'll use our starting point, the low at 1166.31, to calculate price levels for the horizontal lines. Here's the math:

(SQRT(1166.31) + .250) ^2 = 1183.45

(SQRT(1166.31) + .500) ^2 = 1200.71

(SQRT(1166.31) + .750) ^2 = 1218.10

Eyeball these price levels on your Excel chart and draw in a horizontal line at each price level. The chart will look like this.

 Let's add the vertical time lines. Use the same low price of 1166.31. Find the square root (34.15) and round it to the next whole number (34). To complete the vertical time lines all that must be done is draw the lines in 34 bar increments from the starting point of the bar at 1166.31. Draw as many vertical time lines as will fit on the chart. The chart will look like this.

You're almost there.  Add one more vertical line at the starting point price bar at the low of 1166.31 and draw diagonal lines through the intersections of the horizontal and vertical lines. The chart-in-progress will show you graphically what and where to connect things better then any verbal description.

That's all there is to it! You've created a Roadmap Chart. Once you get a feel for the rhythm of the tickers you trade the most, and the Factor that best represents that rhythm, you can create a new Roadmap Chart within minutes of a suspected pivot point. The Roadmap Chart is self-defining. If the trend has changed then the new Roadmap Chart will contain the future price bars for the life of the trend. If the suspected pivot point bombs-out you will know immediately when price bars bust the channels.

One obvious thing we did not mention is that if you're drawing a new Roadmap from a high then you would subtract, not add, the Factor from the square root of the starting price. The vertical line, time calculation, would be the same. Depending on the quote price of your ticker you may get weird results in your early attempts to create a new chart. You will have to experiment, but generally, you want to convert prices into three significant digits (i.e three numbers to the left of the decimal point) to get proportional results. Use a multiple of 10 (multiply or divide by 1/10, 10, 100, 1000, etc.) to convert your prices to three significant digits before calculating the price levels of the horizontal lines. You do not have to change the price scale of the chart, only the price to use when calculating the horizontal price lines. We use natural S&P prices, which currently are four significant digits, for our charts and everything works just fine so like most everything else about the Square of Nine there are no absolutes, and the value you receive is directionally proportional to the effort you make..

We think the Roadmap Chart is a great trading tool without learning another thing about the Square of Nine. How many tools allow you to define a trend ahead of time? Ideally, price will move across the width of the channels before ending the trend. Reactions that do not end the trend often occur near the midpoint of the time lines or the midpoint of the major horizontal price lines. There's no substitute for experience in learning the natural rhythm of your tickers and how to use the Roadmap Charts to your advantage.  Although the Roadmap Chart is based on Square of Nine principles, and as elegant as we believe the Roadmap Chart to be, it does not square price and time. To do that you must first convert both price and time to degrees of a circle and measure them from defined starting points. The Roadmap Chart does not do that.